On Body and Soul directed by Hungarian female director Ildiko Enyedi won the Golden Bear for Best Film at the 67th Berlin International Film Festival. It also picked up the best film awards from the Association of International Film Critics (FIPRESCI) and the German Ecumenical Jury as well as the audience award given by a jury of readers of Berlin daily newspaper Berliner Morgenpost. From 2 March, the acclaimed movie is available in Hungarian with English subtitles at Művész, Cinema City Aréna and Allee.
The film tells a love story of two colleagues in a slaughterhouse. The jury find the film connects the two roles “in quite an amazing way,” and more importantly, reminds people of “a word often used easily”: compassion. Enyedi said the film can be understood only by those with “a generous heart.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FjooEXbE2c
What if one day you met someone who, at night, who dreams the same dream you do. Try and imagine… Would you be thrilled? Would you be scared? Would find it funny? Or rather intrusive? Or, perhaps, romantic? But what if you are not the romantic type at all? If you shudder at the thought of esoteric crap? What if you have problems dealing with your own emotions? How would you face this stranger next day after your shared, tender dreams of the night before? Would you attempt to create the same intimacy and affection you share in your dreams during the day? How is it possible that at night, several kilometers apart, while both of you sleep in lonely beds, you can become one in soul and body, but during the day, facing each other in your flesh and blood reality, you are unable to properly get through even a measly first date? And what if even the second date was a catastrophe? And the third was especially disgraceful? Would you give up? And if you gave up, could you stand it? Could you bear knowing that the person who is your soul mate at night and whose body so naturally caresses yours, remains a stranger to you during the day? Wouldn’t you just die?
Endre (Géza Morcsányi), the director of a modern, decent, EU-comform slaughterhouse and Maria (Alexandra Borbély), the new quality inspector sent by the controlling authorities can’t stand each other. One day, by pure chance, they learn that they just had the exact same dream the night before. Both of them are embarrassed by this discovery. A contemporary tale about the pain and beauty of our existence.